Projects and documents
A document is one spreadsheet, meaning the whole workbook and every sheet in it. Documents sit inside a project, projects belong to a team, and teams belong to an organisation.
Organisation›Team›Project›Document
Adding a workbook
Open a project and click New document. Choose Upload a file, give it a name, then drop in an .xlsx. Documents can also be pulled from Google Drive or SharePoint once those are connected.
Every sheet in the workbook is imported with its formulas intact. Nothing is flattened or trimmed on import.
The document page
The page opens on Overview, with the sheets listed down the side. Selecting a sheet renders it as Excel would: fills and borders, number formats, charts and images, formulas.
The viewer is read-only. You can select and copy cells, switch sheets, turn theFormatting toggle off to see unformatted values, and open a sheet fullscreen. There is no find-and-replace and no in-browser editing. Edits are made in Excel and come back as a new version.
Every document has four tabs: Overview, Change Requests,History and Settings.
Versions
Each upload adds a new version alongside the existing ones. Uploading never replaces or overwrites an earlier version.
Finding a version
The document Overview lists recent versions under Version history. TheHistory tab holds the full list, searchable and sortable oldest or newest first. Each row shows who uploaded it, when, and a count of the cells added, changed and removed.
Viewing and downloading
Each row has two buttons. The eye opens that version in the browser as it was. The arrow downloads it as an Excel file, which can be opened, sent on, or uploaded again.
History only moves forwards. No version is overwritten or deleted.
Reverting
There is no one-click rollback. To make an earlier version current, download it, upload it as a new Working Copy, and publish it through a change request. The revert is recorded in the history like any other change.
Give each upload a version note: one line describing what the version contains. The note appears in the history list.
Change requests
Edits are proposed rather than applied directly. You upload the edited file as aWorking Copy and open a change request against the Live Version, which is the version everyone else opens. The Live Version does not move until the change request is published.
- 1Upload the edited file as a Working Copy
- 2Open a change request against the Live Version
- 3Approvers read the changes and comment
- 4Publish, at which point the Working Copy becomes the Live Version
Opening a change request
From the document's Change Requests tab, click New change request. Select the Working Copy, give it a title and a description of what changed, then click Submit for review.
The change request page
The page shows the title and description, the list of everything that changed, and the reviewers with each of their decisions. Status is Open while under review, Published once the changes are in the Live Version, orWithdrawn if it was dropped.
Why publishing may be blocked
A project can require approval before publishing. Its settings holdRequired approvals (how many people must approve), Prevent self-approval, and Require approval from all requested reviewers. If publishing is unavailable, one of these is unmet.
Publishing is also blocked when the Live Version has changed since the Working Copy was taken. Download the current Live Version, reapply the edit on top of it, and submit again.
Reviewing changes
The Changes tab of a change request compares the two versions cell by cell.Split shows the sheets side by side, labelled Before and After.Inline overlays them in one grid. Sheet tabs run along the top, and an overview lists which sheets were touched.
The colour key
Highlighted cells are colour-coded. The same key appears under the grid:
- Cell AddedEmpty in the previous version.
- Cell RemovedHad a value in the previous version, empty now.
- Value ChangedThe number or text differs.
- Format ChangedColour, font, borders or number format differs.
- Value & Format ChangedBoth the value and the formatting differ.
- fxFormula changedMarked with an fx on the cell rather than a colour. The displayed result can be unchanged while the formula behind it is not.
Cell detail
Selecting a highlighted cell shows its value and its formula, before and after. This is where a total that reads the same but has been hard-coded, or a range that now stops short of the last row, becomes visible.
What else is reported
Charts, images, tables and validation rules are reported, as are sheets that were added, removed or renamed, and column widths, merged cells, hidden rows and frozen panes.
AI Reviewers
A reviewer holds your firm's rules and applies them whenever Vowl reviews a change. The rules are written once in plain language, the reviewer is assigned where it should apply, and every change request in that scope is checked against it.
Findings
A change request has three tabs: Discussion, Changes andVowl Review. Findings appear on Vowl Review, grouped by severity:
- CriticalCheck before publishing.
- WarningWorth checking before publishing.
- NitpickMinor. Fix or dismiss.
Each finding is tagged with a category and pinned to the sheet and cell it refers to:
- Formula error
- Magnitude change
- Hardcoded override
- Inconsistent units
- Broken reference
- Input risk
- Modeling concern
Acting on a finding
Each finding has four actions. Resolve marks it handled. Dismissrecords a reason (False positive, Out of scope,Known / accepted or Other) that later readers can see. Discussopens it as a comment thread on the Discussion tab. Reopen returns a resolved or dismissed finding to the list.
The Discussion tab also carries a Change Summary written by Vowl AI, describing what the change request does.
When it runs
A review runs automatically when a change request is opened or updated, on demand from Run review, and in a comment thread when someone types @Vowl AI.
Creating a reviewer
Open Reviewers in the organisation sidebar. It is admin-only, so it appears only for organisation admins.
- 1Click New, give it a Name and a Description, and set who can edit it: anyone in your organisation or just you.
- 2Add rules. Each rule is one plain-language line answering "What must be true?", with an optional title.
- 3Assign it. Under Settings → AI on an Organization, Team, Project or Document, choose a Rule set and, optionally, a Model for each job.
The three jobs
- ReviewFlags correctness and risk issues on a change request.
- SummarizeWrites the summary of what changed.
- ReplyAnswers when someone mentions @Vowl AI in a thread.
Inheritance
Settings inherit down the hierarchy. A document uses its project's settings, a project its team's, and a team the organisation's, until something is set on the level itself. An inherited setting is labelled Inherited from … so its source is visible.
Setting the rules once at the organisation covers everything beneath it. Override only the levels that need something different.
Vowl includes several Vowl default reviewers, maintained by us. They are read-only: assign one as it is, or duplicate it and edit the copy. Every edit to a reviewer is versioned, and the History tab lists what changed with a Restore this version action.
A reviewer is not an approver. Publishing still requires a person to approve.